Mobile Home Owners Sue To Block Eviction

July 21, 1988|By Terry Wilson.

A group of Glenview mobile home owners filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court Wednesday trying to stop an attempt to turn their location into a car dealership.

The unidentified new owner of the North Glenview Mobile Home Park, at 2000 N. Waukegan Rd., has sent eviction notices to 10 homeowners, stating plans to have an auto lot on the site by December, lawyers for the residents say.

To challenge the evictions, lawyers from the Cook County Legal Assistance Fund, a nonprofit group that aids elderly suburban residents, filed a class-action suit against the owners, whose identity is hidden in a bank land trust.

The suit seeks new one-year leases for the 91 mobile home owners at North Glenview. Many complained at a Wednesday news conference that they stand to lose most of what they have if they are forced to move.

When 86-year-old Katherine Riss looks at her mobile home, she sees the place she`s lived and invested in for 11 years. She`s not interested in moving because it would mean losing her home, her investment and her financial security.

``We homeowners of the North Glenview Mobile Home Park are going to fight to keep our homes,`` Riss said. ``We will fight because the North Shore can afford to do without another car dealership, but we cannot afford to lose our homes.``

Attempts to reach lawyers for the land owner were unsuccessful.

Julie Ansell, an attorney for the residents, said the North Glenview park residents would have to sell their mobile homes because neighboring trailer parks require new tenants to rent or buy new homes, not bring in their old homes. Selling the old trailers would net tenants only a fraction of their value, she said.

The other option, Ansell said, is for tenants to move to faraway mobile home parks where their homes would decline in value and where the residents could be separated from friends, family and jobs.

``Moving is just not an option for most of these residents,`` she said.

Ansell said that 65 percent of the North Glenview park residents are more than 60 years old. The mobile homes provide affordable housing for the residents, who enjoy being self-sufficient, she said.

The trailer owners` problems began in April when resident Arthur Morf, 70, received notice that the mobile home park had been sold and that its new owner planned to build a car dealership.

At the end of the month, instead of receiving the one-year lease that he wanted, he received a five-month lease. When he protested, he said, he received an eviction notice.

Since then, nine others have received eviction notices on the grounds of owner convenience, Ansell said.

Under state law, the land owner may evict mobile home park residents only if they fail to pay rent, break local ordinances or break the rules at the park, Ansell said.

The owners also are required to furnish residents with one-year leases, she said.

Ansell went before Cook County Circuit Judge Sophia Hall seeking temporary restraining orders on the eviction notices Wednesday afternoon. The hearing is expected to conclude Friday, she said.